How to boot to single user mode in nixos

Question

On a nixos installation how does one boot into single user mode?

On a typical linux installation one would set rw init=/sysroot/bin/sh on the bootloader. But nixos being nixos, it has a path that looks like init=/nix/store/[LONG-HASH]-nixos-system-nixos-18.09.228.80754f5cfd6/init

What is the correct path to /bin/sh? Or is there a better way to boot to single user mode on nixos for the purpose of resetting the root password?

Single-user mode split into 2 modes about two decades ago and that is not actually how one invokes either one. — JdeBP, Mar 03 '19 at 00:00
Take a look at this page in the NixOS manual. Note, you can type e with systemd-boot to edit the kernel command line: https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/#sec-boot-problems — Emmanuel Rosa, Mar 03 '19 at 05:37

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 04 '22 at 21:25

In a GRUB 2 menu you can press e to edit the startup details. Add the word single or rescue to the line starting with linux, then press F10 to start in single-user or rescue mode, respectively.

You'll then need to systemctl start network-online.target to enable networking.

How to boot to single user mode in nixos

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